9 Home-Decorating Commandments Every Home Owner Should Follow

While decorating your home is a very personal art, there are certain principles of design that should be followed to help you decorate with success. Whether you’re looking to furnish a newly renovated space or just refresh an existing room, these dos and don’ts should help to get you started.

Dos

Make your decorating style work with the architecture of your home. Don’t force a slick, modern look in an ornate Victorian home; you need to work at least partly with its heritage.
Consider your location. As much as you love the look of coastal homes, your landlocked location just won’t work well with it. Embrace where you live and use your environment to inspire your decorating scheme.
Make mood boards and floor plans for each room of the house — not for the house as a whole. You can still see how all the rooms work together, but each space needs its own time and effort dedicated to it in order for it to work well with the overall scheme.
Mix old and new. If you like the look of all new furniture, add something else that’s slightly aged to the space, such as a vintage clock, antique candlesticks, or a weathered timber shelf. It stops the room from feeling too uniform.
Take your time. There is no need to rush and do all the decorating at once. The best spaces are those that have evolved over a few years.

Don’ts

Place all the furniture up against the walls. Bring pieces in, give the walls breathing space, and use the whole room.
Choose similar accessories. They shouldn’t all be the same height, shape, color, or pattern. Get creative: Break up all the square cushions with a round one, and choose vases in different heights, shapes, and materials. A little variety is key.
Clutter the space. Less really can be more in decorating. Stick to your base style and add a trend or two, but don’t go overboard. Allow a little white space on the wall, some gaps between the cushions on your couch, and think of other ways you can store things out of sight, rather than just adding yet another cupboard or shelf in a room.
Decorate only around one color. Dedicate a color to a theme: Choosing everything in blue and yellow will never make your home look like a coastal retreat.

This post was written by Homes to Love editors. For more, check out our sister site, Homes to Love.